Windows App (formerly Remote Desktop)

The Windows App (formerly Remote Desktop)

The Windows App (“WA”) is a free software system available from Microsoft. Originally designed for remote support applications, it allows any Windows computer to be controlled from another computer on the same network. If you run WA in full screen on a WiFi LAN, it appears (with nearly imperceptible delay) that you’re actually running the target computer. Not only the screen, but also video, audio, keystrokes, and mouse or touch-pad gestures are faithfully duplicated. Even cut and paste between the server (the Windows machine you’re running) and the client (the machine you’re using to control the server) works quite well.

In EAA, I use it to solve multiple problems simultaneously:

  • Controlling my telescope from indoors. During the winter, and even on buggy nights in the summer, I use WA to control the telescope from indoors. The control computer on my telescope is a Windows 11 Pro fanless miniPC, and the WA server connected to my home WiFi. This allows me to control the telescope from multiple devices indoors that are connected to the same WiFi network.
  • Using Macs to control my telescope. I run an Apple household, with Macs instead of PCs interconnected with iPhones and iPads. There is very little Mac-compatible astronomy software available, and no Mac computers suitable for mounting on a telescope anyway (the Mac-mini is mega compared to my Mele Quieter 3 miniPC). When I adopted WA, it was a great solution. I could run best-of-class Windows software on my telescope (SharpCap and NINA) and still use my Macbook and Mac mini computers to control it, taking advantage of their great graphics and displays. (If you examine the photo carefully, it looks like — and is — a Windows 11 desktop. The laptop is a Macbook Pro running WA client software).
  • Eliminating the cable connection to the telescope. I’m obsessed by cable management. WA eliminates the need for a USB cable connecting a computer on the ground to the telescope.
  • Using my iPad mini for polar alignment. WA does support an IOS client. The touch screen interface is a bit awkward, but it works well enough for PA using NINA’s 3-star routine. It solved a serious winter problem in that (unfortunately) in very cold weather my sticky AM5 mount’s adjustment-screws can be finicky, and my Macbook could freeze and shut down after a few minutes when temps are close to 0° F. Now I bring my iPad outside with rubber bands holding it on a heating pad. It stays warm, even if I don’t.

Microsoft includes the remote server with Windows Pro. Windows Home Edition requires a download. Microsoft’s remote client software is built into Windows. Clients for most other platforms including Mac’s, iPads, and iPhones are distributed via the App Store or equivalent. Microsoft does not support UNIX clients, but they can be downloaded from open-source UNIX projects.

BTW, I use WA’s cut and paste support to move SharpCap’s saved .png files from my control computer to my Mac. While running my telescope via WA, I go into Windows Explorer to copy the file from SharpCap’s capture directory; then take WA out of full screen, open the Mac Finder, and paste the file. Works great and much more convenient than using a thumb drive.